Stumbling On Water

It’s May of 1995 and Calvin Heidlemann, a recently retired pastor, is sailing off the coast of the Dominican Republic while impatiently waiting for his next ministry endeavor to begin.  His wife and first mate, Marcia, is right there alongside him, yet she’s missing the grandkids back in the States and questioning if retiring and relocating to the Caribbean was the right call.
 
Back in Pennsylvania, their youngest daughter, a youth pastor and an experienced sailor, embarks with a group of students on an ambitious, summer-long cruise of the Great Lakes.  But, when circumstances threaten to end that trip prematurely, she reaches out to her parents and asks them to come north, take the helm, and continue the journey.
 
While Marcia is immediately on board with the idea, Calvin is not.  Despi his objections, the retired couple soon find themselves on Lake Erie aboard a sailboat in need of repair with seven middle schoolers, an inexperienced cook, and a belligerent senior crew member their daughter hadn’t warned them about.  As mechanical issues surface and differences of opinion abound, Calvin considers abandoning ship because he knows it’ll take a miracle for both boat and crew to complete the cruise.  In response, Marcia insists they hold out for just such a miracle.